1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a self-scanning checkout device with which a customer himself scans and registers purchased articles.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional self-scanning checkout device has a registering section, a carrying-in/weighing section, a carrying-out section, and a settlement section. The registering section includes a stationary scanner, the carrying-in/weighing section includes a carrying-in conveyor and a weighing unit, and the carrying-out section includes a carrying-out conveyor. The registering section, a carrying-in/weighing section, and a carrying-out section are arranged in this order along the flow of articles. The settlement section is constructed by an electronic cash register and disposed near the carrying-in/weighing section and carrying-out section. This checkout device is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 61-46591, for example.
In the above device, a customer himself passes purchased articles one at a time on the reading surface of the stationary scanner to read the article code (bar code) thereof and sets the articles on the carrying-in conveyer of the carrying-in/weighing section. Then, the article code read by the scanner is transmitted to the settlement section and real weight data of the article weighed by the weighing unit is transmitted to the settlement section. As a result, in the settlement section, article weight data previously set for the article code is compared with the real weight data to determine whether two weight data items substantially coincide with each other or not. When it is determined that the two weight data items substantially coincide with each other, sales data of the article is registered in the settlement section and the article is carried out from the carrying-out section via the carrying-in conveyer and carrying-out conveyer.
When the scanning registration for all of the purchased articles by the customer is completed, the total amount of the purchased articles is output from the settlement section. Therefore, the cashier is only required to effect the settlement service in the settlement section. Then, the customer puts the carried-out articles from the carrying-out section into a bag.
In the case of self-scanning system, since the customer himself operates the stationary scanner to scan and register the purchased articles, it becomes important to prevent an erroneous operation caused by misunderstanding that the article is registered even when the article code cannot be correctly read by the scanner or a dishonest act for intentionally effecting incorrect registration.
Conventionally, the above-described erroneous operation and dishonest act are prevented by comparing the real weight of the registered article and the preset weight thereof with each other. However, in this case, a weighing unit for measuring the article weight is necessary, thereby increasing the installation cost and increasing the size of the device, and it is also necessary to previously store and manage preset weight information of each article, thereby making information management complicated.